The Tuxedo Travels: Fool Mental Jacket

On Saturday, the two burned their “civilian clothes” and donned snappy tuxedos – the only clothes they will wear for the next three and a half months as they blog, vlog and otherwise self-humiliate their way west from Hong Kong across Asia, India, the more-stable parts of the Middle East and Europe.

That’s right, they’ll be crossing India – in the dead of summer – in Bangkok-tailored tuxes, for charity…
By the time (if?) they arrive in London on August 11 they hope to have raised $20,000 for The Silly Fund, the home-grown charity they established to give some purpose to the what-the-hell expedition they dreamed up one drunken night in a Hong Kong bar a couple of years ago.

The fundraising plan itself sounds like either a crowd-pleasing, culture-spanning hoot or a one-way ticket to a truncheon massage in a filthy third-world prison cell:

THE LOWDOWN: You donate money to The Silly Fund. When a milestone is reached a humiliation is enacted AND a charitable deed is done.

POSSIBLE EARLY EXAMPLE: We reach $500. Heath gets half his head shaved. We take a bunch of homeless people out for a banquet.

POSSIBLE LATER EXAMPLE: We reach $5,000. Doug does the Cumber bund Streak through town. We buy some goats and herd them to the next village where we donate them.

The Tuxedo Travels is nothing less than a mission to save humanity; it’s directly about communities and people, not politicians and their ‘politics’. The facts:

* On April 1st, two fools who barely know each other will travel from Hong Kong to London in 4 months and 10 days, culminating in a black tie gala on August 11th.
* We will be using the internet to directly connect people to our experiences AND since this is the world’s first interactive journey you, the crazy viewer, will have a direct effect what we do and how we do it (see the Feedback section).
* While avoiding getting kidnapped or molested (against our will), we are attempting to raise US$20,000 for an altogether silly charity (see The Silly Fund).
* Aaah, yes, and the entire trip will be done in tuxedos.

IT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE YOU’VE GOT MUCH OF A PLAN NOW, HAVE YOU?

Precisely dear friend! Are we looking for some hidden delights in South Asia? Yes. Are we wondering how we’re going to traverse the Himalayas? Certainly. Can one sail across the Caspian Sea? Who knows? Are we concerned that we’ll get gang banged in Russia? Sure!

We’re embarking on this journey and we’re not sure what we’ll find but one thing IS for certain, we’re damn well looking for it.

SO WHY THE TUXEDO?

It grabbed your attention didn’t it? Now we’re going to attempt to disrobe the tensions in the world through our light hearted humour and rugged good looks. We are completely non-elitist, but at the same time we don’t think people should take themselves too seriously. What better way to attempt to say “it doesn’t matter what you look like” than to wear tuxes and hang about in dodgy locales until people take notice.

And finally, nobody’s ever going to take us seriously dressing like backpackers are they?

We made it to Yangshuo – a convenient and visually spectacular Chinese town about 10 hours north of Hong Kong. The locals seemed bemused and many think we’re famous for something, somewhere. Fellow travelers are either excitedly curious or seem a little nervous – tensions we ease with turning on the “hyper friendly mode”.

After some particularly spicy soup I’m working on our next video! Thanks again and until next time, keep it fancy!